When Will My Birth Control Get More Expensive? Obamacare Is In Flux

The Republican-majority Congress took the first of many steps to dismantle the Affordable Care Act (ACA) last week. Congress rejected several amendments proposed by Democrats that would have preserved key components of ACA, including one that would have ensured continued access to insurance for people with pre-existing conditions. Another of the most noteworthy votes struck down a proposed amendment that would have preserved healthcare coverage for contraception. This means, as millions of American women have already figured out, that your birth control may get a whole lot more expensive.

Don't expect a huge increase over the next month, though. The process for repealing the ACA will be long and complicated, and changes to your insurance plan won't occur right away. If you are currently insured through Obamacare, your plan will likely remain unchanged through the end of 2017, regardless of how Congress votes.

The process is further complicated by the promises some Republicans have made to replace Obamacare simultaneously while repealing it, which theoretically might preserve consistent coverage for the millions of Americans insured through ACA. However, Republicans do not currently have a plan to replace Obamacare. If they wait to repeal it until they do have a plan, the resulting process could be much longer than a simple repeal.

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Until Obamacare is officially repealed, birth control will still be available without a copay, assuming you are currently enrolled in a plan that provides it. According to the National Women's Law Center, 55 million American women currently have no-copay birth control coverage, which saved those women an estimated $1.4 billion in 2013 alone. All of these women could lose this benefit if Obamacare is repealed.